


Voice of my dreams

by HopeSilverheart



Series: Loving Em at 2AM [65]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alec is a good brother, Alec is afraid of the sea, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, F/F, First Meetings, Fluff, Girls in Love, Human Isabelle, Isabelle is smitten, Mermaid Clary, Mermaids, Ocean, Singing, meet cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:07:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25293679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HopeSilverheart/pseuds/HopeSilverheart
Summary: The song didn’t have lyrics, but it really didn’t need them, as Isabelle had come to learn. When it came to the voice, the melody was a lot more important than anything else; it was all about the feelings the voice could convey, the things it was so clearly trying to express.On some nights, the voice sounded so sad that Isabelle wanted nothing more than to find it so she could hug its owner and tell them everything would be alright. On other nights, the voice was so cheerful that it managed to get Isabelle out of her dark moods and lull her into the land of dreams better than anything had before.Or: In which Clary is a mermaid, and Isabelle finds her voice enchanting.
Relationships: Alec Lightwood & Isabelle Lightwood, Clary Fray/Isabelle Lightwood
Series: Loving Em at 2AM [65]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1764400
Comments: 5
Kudos: 37





	Voice of my dreams

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thatnerdemryn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatnerdemryn/gifts).



There was a voice in Isabelle’s dreams.

At first, she had thought it was just a figment of her imagination, something she had heard once and enjoyed enough to play on loop whilst she was sleeping. She hadn’t even realised she had been humming the same melody on repeat for five days until her brother asked her where it came from. She hadn’t known then, and she still didn’t know now.

Except now, she knew it wasn’t something she was inventing. She had woken up in the middle of a nightmare one night, and the echo of the song had been there. She had wondered, for a few seconds, if she was going crazy, but then she had opened her window and the voice had been so much clearer. That’s when she had realised the voice wasn’t in her dreams; it was outside her house, calling to her like nothing ever had before.

Part of her still thought she was insane, so she asked Alec to spend the night with her so he could tell her whether or not he heard the voice. And if he did, maybe it was time for the Lightwood siblings to go on an epic night time adventure again. It had been too long since they had last had fun together, and Isabelle was craving for something more than the life she had at the moment.

Not that it was a bad life, of course. She loved working for the local free clinic, and she enjoyed getting to see her brothers every day, but she had to admit she was longing for something slightly more significant. Love, or maybe just companionship, or even a night spent looking for the voice that took up every inch her mind when she closed her eyes in the evening.

“I’m telling you, it’s the strangest thing,” she told Alec as he walked into her little beachside house, nothing with him except the clothes on his back. It was a very _Alec_ move, honestly. “I’ve tried looking outside my window to see if anyone is serenading me à la Romeo, but I haven’t spotted a single soul so far. And yes, I know I sound a little bit crazy, but I promise you’ll understand what I mean when the night falls.”

“Except if this turns into one of those movies you love,” Alec pointed out, smirking when Isabelle only stared at him blankly. She loved a lot of movies, after all. “The ones where the main character repeatedly tries to convince their friends that there’s something out there, only for the thing to disappear or stop working when their friends are around? Those ones?”

“Oh,” Isabelle said dumbly, her eyes widening in alarm. She hadn’t even thought about that. Of course, she wasn’t sure the voice was singing for her, but what if it was? And what if it got offended at the thought of singing for someone else, or at the thought of Isabelle betraying the voice’s secret, and then it stopped coming? Not only would she come off as crazy in Alec’s eyes, but she wouldn’t get to hear the voice.

And as insane as it sounded, she had actually come to like the voice more than she liked anything else. It helped her fall asleep when she was feeling down, and it was always there when she woke up from a nightmare. And, more importantly, it provided the perfect soundtrack to her dreams, leaving her in a great mood even when she couldn’t remember the contents of said dream once she woke up.

“Well, let’s just hope that doesn’t happen,” she said firmly. “Besides, we’re not in a movie, Alec, there’s no reason for the voice to suddenly disappear, especially since it doesn’t know you’re here.”

“How do you know? Maybe it has cameras in this house and has been stalking you ever since you moved here, trying to lull you into a fake sense of security before dragging you into the ocean to drown you,” Alec whispered spookily, bursting out laughing when Isabelle let out a soft gasp.

Immediately, the brunette threw herself at her brother with a war cry and attacked his sides, grinning widely when he let out breathless giggles and tried to slap her hands away from his body without hurting her. She never stood a chance, since he always ended up grabbing her and throwing her onto her sofa, but it was less about the result of the fight and more about the fight itself.

Indeed, when she found herself laying flat on her back, she could do nothing but beam brightly at her brother, who was smirking smugly at her, his hands pressed on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.

“You’re an idiot,” Isabelle finally said, panting lightly. “The voice is too pretty to hurt me. Besides, it’s only a voice.”

Alec stared at her incredulously, as thought Isabelle had just said something ridiculous, and it took her a second to go over her words and blush furiously at her own stupidity. She was usually quite smart, but tickle fights and the memory of entrancing voices didn’t do much to help her maintain her wits.

“Alright, fine, it’s probably connected to a body,” Isabelle huffed. “But I really don’t think it’ll try to hurt us. You’re way too strong to be taken down by someone with a voice as soft and delicate as the one that sings to me every night. Believe me, we’ll be safe, especially since we’ll have the advantage of surprise.”

“If you say so,” Alec shrugged. “Now, until this voice comes out, what do you say I make you a nice meal? I know you always buy too much food for yourself, and especially food you know you can’t cook, so I thought I could roam around your kitchen and make you the meal of a lifetime.”

And really, when had Isabelle ever said no to a meal from her chef brother who worked in the best restaurant in the city? She couldn’t cook to save her life, no matter how much she tried to improve her skills, and Alec _loved_ cooking, so it was a win-win situation. Plus, a meal with her brother would give her the time to forget about the voice and stop fidgeting as she thought about what she would be doing later that night.

Dinner first, adventures later, she told herself, even though her mind stubbornly tried to repeat her favourite melody again. She shoved it to the back of her thoughts unceremoniously and headed towards her kitchen, hoping beyond hope that Alec would manage to distract her sufficiently.

And distract her he did. First, he asked her to help in the kitchen, which was both rare and proof that he had noticed how nervous she was about what they were going to do later. Then they had dinner, which meant she couldn’t focus on anything except how good her brother was at what he did for a living. Then he distracted her with a movie, an improvised karaoke session with tracks they found on YouTube, and a brief fashion show during which he grabbed as many accessories as possible and threw them onto his body, giving Isabelle plenty of blackmail material for the coming years.

He distracted her so well that they almost missed the first few bars of the voice’s favourite melody. Isabelle knew it was its favourite, because it was the one she heard at least four times a night when she stayed awake late and her body refused to give her the rest she so desperately needed. The song didn’t have lyrics, but it really didn’t need them, as Isabelle had come to learn. When it came to the voice, the melody was a lot more important than anything else; it was all about the feelings the voice could convey, the things it was so clearly trying to express.

On some nights, the voice sounded so sad that Isabelle wanted nothing more than to find it so she could hug its owner and tell them everything would be alright. On other nights, the voice was so cheerful that it managed to get Isabelle out of her dark moods and lull her into the land of dreams better than anything had before.

“Oh my god, Izzy,” Alec breathed out, his eyes wide with awe. He was gaping at her, as though he couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing. Isabelle would have taken the time to tell him ‘I told you so’, but she knew she had been the same way when she had first realised the voice was real. Something about it drew her in, and it seemed Alec understood where she was coming from now that he had heard it for himself.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” She whispered, not wanting to cover the voice with her own words. Words that could never compete with the melody drifting in through her windows and making her lips curl into an unconscious smile. “Like nothing you’ve ever heard before, not even the most amazing songs you’d thought you’d heard.”

“Yeah,” Alec agreed, stepping closer to her living room window and staring out at the beach, narrowing his eyes as though it would be enough for him to spot the mysterious owner of the voice. “Yeah, it really is. So… Are you still up for that adventure? Because as much as I hate to admit that you were right, I don’t think I can handle the suspense of not knowing who’s behind _this_.”

“Yes!” Isabelle cheered, throwing her hands in the air victoriously and embracing her brother tightly as she raced up her house’s stairs, grabbing the first pair of sandals she could find and hurrying back down before Alec could change his mind. “Alright, I’m ready! I have my phone, my keys, and myself!”

“And me,” Alec added, chuckling at Isabelle’s eagerness. She barely took the time to nudge him sharply with her elbow before she was stepping out of her house and breathing in the cool evening air. Even in the middle of the summer, when the days were unbearably hot, living near the sea meant Isabelle got to enjoy some freshness at night.

Alec had never understood what she loved so much about the ocean, but she supposed it wasn’t something everyone could understand. He liked his kitchen; she liked the outdoors and the beach. It was the way things had always been, and she had given up on convincing Alec to take her on trips to the sea before she was even out of high school.

The mere fact that he was following her onto the beach behind her house was proof that he was truly curious about the voice. He tended to avoid it like the plague, and it was the first time Isabelle had seen him on the beach since she had been fifteen, maybe sixteen.

“Hey Alec,” she said softly as they followed the familiar melody, the voice getting louder and clearer as they walked. “Don’t you find it weird that you live in a city near the ocean but never come out here? I mean, don’t your friends bug you about it?”

“Not really,” Alec shrugged, staring into the distance and pointedly not looking at the sea. “They understand that we all have things we don’t like, and that one of those things for me is the ocean. I just find it too big, too dark, too mysterious, and I know that’s your thing, but it’s really not mine. The ocean to me is like… Like heights to you.”

_Right_ , Isabelle shivered. If that was the case, it was a miracle Alec was even on the beach, since Isabelle could barely climb a ladder without feeling like her life was about to end. Maybe her brother had a point; maybe fears weren’t always rational, and maybe sometimes they meant you had to miss out on the fun things in life. Like the beach and the sea, in Alec’s case, of like ferry wheels and mountains in Isabelle’s.

“Do you think the voice comes from the ocean?” Isabelle added after a moment’s pause. It was what would make the most sense, but it was also what would make the least sense, because what kind of being lived in the sea and sounded like _that_? “Because when I listen to it… Sometimes, it sounds like it’s right outside my window, hidden in the waves, if you know what I mean.”

“I don’t really,” Alec said slowly. “But if you think it comes from the sea… I mean, I’m not saying you should expect a mermaid, but who knows what kind of things are hiding in the dark depths of the ocean? I was serious when I said it was a mysterious place; scientists and researchers haven’t even made a dent in the world’s sea creature encyclopaedia, so we could be discovering something completely new.”

“Or it could be a mermaid,” Isabelle grinned, dodging the flurry of sand Alec tried to send her way with his foot. “I’m just saying! A mermaid would make a lot more sense than a mutant whale!”

“How on _earth_ does a mermaid make more sense than a whale?” Alec exclaimed, shaking his head at her exasperatedly. “I swear, Izzy, for a doctor, you sometimes have the strangest theories about the world.”

“Me being a doctor and me having strange theories about the world have nothing to do with each other,” Isabelle scoffed. Yes, she was a scientist at heart, and she only truly believed what she could see, but she also knew there was a certain power to doubting the things around you. “The thing is, even though I’ve never seen a mermaid, there’s also no solid proof that says they _don’t_ exist. I mean, yes, it’s slightly unrealistic and I doubt we’re about to find a mermaid on the beach in California, but there are things that are even more impossible.”

“Like what?” Alec asked challengingly. “Meeting a unicorn?”

“Yes, actually,” Isabelle nodded easily, not letting her brother’s sarcasm throw her off her game. “Statistically speaking, we know more about the creatures roaming the earth than we do the ones roaming the sea. Humans can walk a lot better than they can dive, which means we’re more likely to meet a mermaid than a unicorn. My argument might not hold up well in front of a jury, since both of those beings are supposedly myths, but theoretically…”

“Yeah, you know what, I believe you,” Alec said rapidly, and Isabelle frowned at his sudden change of tone. “Completely, absolutely, mermaids are definitely more likely than unicorns.”

“Well, not that I don’t appreciate being told I’m right, but what made you change your mind?” Isabelle asked, following her brother’s finger when he pointed in the distance. She narrowed her eyes, wondering what on earth he had seen, and almost tripped over thin air. “Holy shit, is that a…?”

“I mean, it could be a cosplayer who’s decided to take a dip in the middle of the night whilst singing the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard,” Alec suggested. “Or it could be a mermaid. You choose which one you think is more likely, Izzy. Or the one you _want_ to be more likely.”

It was insane. Yes, she had just been debating the statistics of mermaids being real with her brother, but she hadn’t actually- She hadn’t actually meant that they were going to find a mermaid on the beach behind her house. The voice had been beautiful, and a part of her had been imagining a beautiful mermaid all along, but she had thought those were just _dreams_. She had always had a bit of a wild imagination, so she had just believed she was acting crazy.

And now- Now…

“Are we having a simultaneous hallucination?” She hissed, nudging her brother in the ribs when he failed to answer, too busy staring at the figure in the distance. “I mean, are we sure all my food was good to eat, because I sometimes leave stuff hanging around for a while, so…”

“I hope you’re not implying that I didn’t check our food before making our dinner, Isabelle,” Alec raised his eyebrows at her, coming to a halt once the figure was in their direct line of sight.

From a few feet away, it really _did_ look like a mermaid. Isabelle couldn’t quite see the voice’s owner yet, couldn’t quite tell if they were a woman or a man or something else entirely, but she knew this was the person she had been looking for. The voice was so clear here, she felt shivers race down her spine at the sound. From a distance, the melody had been beautiful.

From up close, it was downright divine, a blessing sent from the heavens, something precious Isabelle wanted to treasure forever. Her breath caught in her throat as the voice stopped, the melody coming to an end. Usually, the voice went right back to singing, starting another song and letting Isabelle enjoy the soothing sounds of the sea mixed with a voice she adored.

This time, however, the only thing she could hear was silence. The figure sitting on the rocks was tense, almost as though it was expecting Alec and Isabelle to do something. And really, it wasn’t wrong, since Isabelle _had_ been planning on going up to the voice’s owner and telling them they were the most amazing person she had ever heard. Except now, it looked like this person was a mermaid, and Isabelle wasn’t sure her heart could handle that revelation.

“Iz,” Alec murmured, shaking her out of her spiralling and confusing thoughts. “Hey, look, whether it’s a mermaid or just a strange person who likes to sing at night, I’ll be right here. I’m not going to come with you, because I have a feeling this is something you’re supposed to do alone, but I’ll be waiting. I won’t leave you alone, I promise.”

“Pinky promise?” Isabelle asked, extending her pinky finger and exhaling when Alec shook it without hesitation.

She trusted her brother. He wouldn’t leave her, especially not when they was a potentially dangerous stranger around. She trusted him, and she trusted her instincts. Her heart and soul were telling her to believe in the voice, to give it a chance, to meet its owner and see what they were like, and she had never denied her heart anything. Not when that thing was right there, sitting in front of her with their eyes fixed on her.

The closer she got to the figure, the more certain she was that they were truly dealing with a mermaid, no matter how strange it sounded. The first thing she noticed once the moonlight illuminated the figure, now just a feet away from her, was the mermaid’s shining red hair. It was long and wavy and Isabelle wanted nothing more than to run her fingers through it, even though she knew that would be extremely impolite.

And then she noticed the tail, the one thing that confirmed she was dealing with a mermaid and not just some strange woman who had decided to dress herself up for the night. Because that tail couldn’t be fake. It sparkled in the moonlight like a million diamonds had been painstakingly glued onto it, and the colours were so _vivid_ , even in the dark, that Isabelle couldn’t imagine them belonging on a costume.

The mermaid’s waist was decorated in golden scales, scales that went right down her tail, turning into pink and twisting into a lovely rose gold colour that somehow complemented the mermaid’s hair perfectly. And then the woman turned to stare at her with golden-green eyes, and Isabelle forgot how to function.

She had met a lot of beautiful people in her life. _She_ was a relatively beautiful person, as was her brother, and she had dated plenty of people she had found attractive in the past. Yet none of them, not a single one, lived up to this mermaid with her vivid hair, her glittery tail, and her ethereal eyes.

She wanted to speak. She wanted to ask this mermaid how she was real, wanted to compliment her voice, wanted to tell her that she hadn’t been able to get her mind off her melodies for almost a month now, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t think, let alone _talk_. Because right in front of her was the most gorgeous woman she had ever seen, and Isabelle… Well, Isabelle had always been weak for pretty girls, especially ones that had a hidden talent behind all those layers of beauty.

“Are you alright?” The mermaid asked, and Isabelle almost whined, because of _course_ her normal voice was as beautiful as her singing one. “I’m sorry, people don’t usually come out here at night, and they certainly never come to see _me_.”

“Why not?” Isabelle blurted out before she could stop herself, although she refused to take the question back now that she had asked it. After all, she felt like it was a valid inquiry; night time strolls down the beach weren’t uncommon and, surely, anyone would stop to meet a mermaid. Right?

“Maybe they’re not looking closely enough,” the mermaid said cryptically, which only left Isabelle with more questions. “You, however… Were you looking for me? Or was it my voice that brought you here?”

“Can’t it be both?” Isabelle frowned. “Your voice was the only part of you I had access to when I was still in my house, but I came looking for its owner. So I suppose your voice is what originally caught my ear, but the mystery behind your existence is what brought me here.”

“Interesting,” the mermaid whispered. “Do you know what I am?”

“I mean, I really hope you’re a mermaid, because otherwise this conversation is about to get very weird,” Isabelle answered, begging Fate not to have thrown her in a crazy person’ path. “What else has a tail like yours, lives on the beach, and can sing like an angel?”

“A siren,” the mermaid replied as though it were obvious. Maybe it was, to her. “But that’s a story for another day. I am indeed a mermaid, although not a very good one, since my father would be horrified to learn I’ve been mingling with humans. My best friend got in a _lot_ of trouble when he did this, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I was taken aside and grounded for a while after tonight.”

“ _What_?” Isabelle gaped. “No, you can’t be grounded! I mean, clearly you can, even though that is the strangest thing I’ve ever heard, but how am I going to sleep if I can’t hear your voice! And would this mean you’ll never be allowed to come back up here again? Because believe me, as crazy as it feels to be talking to a mythical being, I _really_ don’t want to see you once and then have to forget about the voice that’s been keeping me sane over these last couple of weeks.”

God, she sounded like a nutcase. She knew, rationally, that Alec could see the mermaid too, which meant she wasn’t losing her mind, but it was hard to tell herself that whilst she was talking to said mermaid about being grounded under the sea, like some strange Little Mermaid plot twist.

“How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?” Isabelle asked. The woman seemed to be about her age and surely, a twenty-year old mermaid couldn’t get grounded for breaking one of her father’s rules, right?

“Twenty,” the mermaid answered, glancing down at the water sheepishly. “I know I shouldn’t be afraid of my father and his rules, but he made it sound like visiting humans was the worst crime a mermaid could commit, and I really don’t want to be thrown into jail.”

“Why on earth would he punish you for wanting to get some fresh air?” Isabelle asked incredulously. “I mean, come on, the ocean must get pretty boring after a while, right? Everyone should be allowed to come up and look at the moon from a little closer, no matter whether they have legs or a tail. As for meeting humans… It’s not your fault a nosy girl who lives on the beach couldn’t help herself from trying to find the person behind the most amazing voice I’ve ever heard.”

“My father might disagree with that,” the mermaid sighed. “But enough about him, why don’t you tell me what you’re really here to do? Surely, it can’t be just to tell me you liked my singing, right?”

“I mean, no…” Isabelle started, grimacing as she remembered what she had told herself she would do if she met the voice’s owner. “But my plans have changed a little now that I’ve found out you’re apparently a mermaid and clearly can’t walk. See, I was going to woo the mysterious singer and maybe ask them on a date, to see if their personality is as pleasant as their voice.”

“Very smooth,” the mermaid snorted, and Isabelle took a second to marvel over the woman’s laugh before she realised the _mermaid_ had just made a joke about flirting. For some reason, that surprised her even more than anything else had so far, and she’d just found out mermaids were real, so that was saying something. “Who’s to say you can’t ask me out on a date, though?”

“I-” That was both a very good question, and an absolutely absurd one. What was a human supposed to do on a date with a mermaid? Dive into the ocean and swim around for a while? Sit on the rocks and talk for hours? Actually… “I mean, I assumed mermaids probably had better things to do than talk to people like me who stalked your voice and then walked up to you as though I already knew you.”

“Believe me, I’ve dealt with a lot worse down under,” the mermaid chuckled. “I’m Clary, by the way.”

It was such an ordinary name for someone as extraordinary as the beautiful mermaid in front of Isabelle, and yet it suited her perfectly. Clary, the red-haired woman with an entrancing voice and a tail that shone brighter than all the stars in the sky. It sounded about right to Isabelle.

“I’m Isabelle,” she said softly, smiling at Clary and grinning when the mermaid turned a dark red. So mermaids could _blush_. Good to know. “And my brother Alec is back there, probably wondering if he should leave, since I’m clearly okay. However, he promised me he would stay, which means he’ll hang around all night if that’s what it takes to get me home safely.”

“That’s very sweet of him,” Clary said, her eyes scrunching up happily. “Although it’s a shame he’s here, since we could have had our first date right now if you had been alone. As it is, I think it’s a little bit awkward to have your brother around when you’re trying to seduce a mermaid.”

“Definitely, although I could easily- wait, _first date_? And I thought I was being a little too eager by complimenting your voice and coming up to you and trying to sweet-talk you just a little bit,” Isabelle said, trying to sound slightly more confident than she currently felt. She had just been asked out by a _mermaid_. Clary had just asked her out, even though Isabelle had to be the strangest and creepiest person she had ever met.

Isabelle had no idea whether that meant she was a better flirt than she thought she was, or if Clary was simply as insane as Isabelle. Maybe they would fit well together, since they were both a little too quick to agree to a date with a complete stranger.

“My brother is going to tease me forever when I tell him that I somehow got out of this adventure with a date,” Isabelle groaned. “I mean, it was always my plan, but a part of me thought we wouldn’t find anyone, and another part of me believed the voice’s owner would be a bit of a dick or a bitch.”

“And I’m neither?”

“You’re definitely neither,” Isabelle laughed lightly. “I mean, you’re… First of all, you’re a mermaid, which means you could be talking in gibberish to me and I would still be completely in awe of your voice and your body and just _everything_ about you. Secondly, you seem to be quite kind and funny, although if you ask Alec, it’s probably all a lure to get me into the water and drown me.”

“Ah, damn it!” Clary exclaimed, snapping her fingers as though her plans had just been ruined. “How did he figure it out so fast?”

“He’s a very smart guy,” Isabelle answered seriously. “Knows that you should never trust voices that come to you in your dreams, especially ones that make you want to find their owner. All very suspicious. Are you sure you’re not a siren?”

Clary gasped indignantly, and Isabelle knew she had hit the nail right on the head when the redheaded mermaid splashed water in her direction with her tail. She spluttered slightly at the onslaught of salty water, but she was still grinning by the time she managed to get it all out of her eyes.

“How dare you insinuate such a thing?” Clary said, raising her hands to her heart as though Isabelle’s words had truly wounded her. “Go, and next time you come, please don’t bring an escort, so I can properly drown you in my ocean.”

“Oh yes, I’ll make sure Alec is nowhere near when I come by tomorrow, I promise,” Isabelle winked, preening when Clary perked up, as though she was truly happy to hear Isabelle would be back the next day. “Although I’m hoping for a little less drowning, and a little more dating, if you don’t mind changing your plans a little bit.”

“For you, I might make an exception,” Clary sighed. “After all, I _am_ the one who asked you out in the first place, no matter that you talked about a date first.”

“Indeed you are,” Isabelle nodded. “And it would be cruel of you to stand me up. So… tomorrow? Are you sure you’re not about to be thrown in jail by your father, or grounded into your underwater castle or wherever it is that beautiful mermaids like you live?”

“I’ll try to stay out of prison,” Clary chuckled. “Now seriously, go. I’ll swim along with you and your brother and sing you a nice little lullaby so you can fall asleep and dream sweet dreams of me.”

Isabelle didn’t need to be told twice. The promise of a date _and_ a song was more than enough to get her running towards her brother. She grabbed his arm before he could say anything, hurriedly telling him about the strangest and most exhilarating conversation of her lifetime as they raced back to her house.

At first, she thought Clary might have forgotten about her, or outright lied, but then she was slipping into her bed, curled around Alec and dressed in her softest summer pyjamas, and a beautiful voice poured into the room.

It was a song she had never heard before, but the melody seemed to tell a story of hope and love and other things that made Isabelle’s heart flutter, and she didn’t doubt that right outside her window, sitting on the beach or on a rock or swimming in the sea, the voice’s owner she had met earlier was thinking about her.

That night, Isabelle fell asleep to a melody made just for her and, as Clary had promised her, she dreamed of kissing a red-haired mermaid under the moonlight.

**Author's Note:**

> Heya guys! Thank you so much for reading! I read a merpeople AU by Em today and just had to write one myself, so here it is! I hope you all enjoyed it <3
> 
> Love, Junie.
> 
> (find me on tumblr @hopesilverheart)


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